1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for printing a sheet by a printhead and, more particularly, to a printing apparatus for conveying sheets to a printing area facing a printhead while part of a succeeding sheet overlaps part of a preceding sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-15881 describes a printing apparatus for controlling to make the marginal area of the leading edge of a succeeding sheet overlap the marginal area of the trailing edge of a preceding sheet, which comprises a feeding means for separating and feeding a plurality of sheets one by one, a printing means for forming an image on a sheet, a conveyance means for conveying a sheet to the printing means, a detection means for detecting a sheet, and a control means for controlling driving of the feeding means according to a signal of the detection means.
However, the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-15881 can start to feed the succeeding sheet only when the amount of margin of the trailing edge of the preceding sheet and that of the leading edge of the succeeding sheet are confirmed before the start of feeding of the succeeding sheet. This imposes a technical problem in that it takes time to start to feed the succeeding sheet.